CRACKED Reviews: Lucky Louie

Have you ever been watching Seinfeld and wished that someone would let a "fuck" or a "shit" slip out every now and then? If so, Lucky Louie might be your next favorite show. HBO is billing Louie as the "end of the sitcom as we know it," but Louie is actually very much a part of the sitcom tradition that we already know so well.

There' the husband, Louie (veteran stand-up and writer Louis C.K.) who is inexplicably married to Kim (Pamela Adlon), a woman who is far too good looking for him. Then there're Louie' friends, Mike (Michael G. Hagerty) and Rich (Jim Norton) who provide the token buddy humor and zany advice, while the African-American family in the apartment across the hall makes for a veritable treasure trove of clichéd and awkward black people versus white people moments.

Now, if you put this show on broadcast TV, people would hate it more than The War At Home, but being on HBO is where Louie stands out from the crowd. The "not just TV" medium enables the show to use such underused phrases as "I'm going to fuck your tits off," rather than the standard, focus group tested, watered down jokes that dominate the major network' sitcoms. C.K., who is also the show' executive producer and head writer, constantly throws these types of lines into the mix, catching viewers off-guard and producing an above average laugh-per-minute rate.

Louie isn't your average HBO show. In fact, it' more like a sitcom that just happens to be on HBO. It even has a studio audience, a first for an HBO series and a scarcely used asset in today' sitcom world. For those looking for a replacement for Curb Your Enthusiasm, this may not entirely deliver. But for those who are fans of C.K.' bawdy stand-up, you'll probably cream your pants. Either way, give this show a chance-it starts off slow, but by the end it'll, well, fuck your tits off, to borrow a phrase.

Here' a quick run-down of Louie' vital stats:

Premieres: Sunday, June 11th at 10:30 on HBO

The Pros:
Finally, a sitcom with obscenities.

The Cons:
The storyline is unoriginal and hackneyed. There' also a decent amount of stiff acting and Louie' daughter, Lucy (Kelly Gould), doesn't sell herself as a child very well. In fact, I was really upset when she didn't die of a terrible disease in the first twenty minutes of the pilot episode.

What we'd like to see:
It' not TV, it' HBO"¦ how about some boobies?

Look out for:
Pamela Adlon cracking up in the supermarket as Laura Kightlinger "does her thing" with frozen meat.